yellow split pea soup w/ mushrooms and chipotle

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I've been on a serious soup kick lately... soup is so satisfying and warming on cold winter days. It's also super easy to make; I find soup foolproof, it's the type of food that can be mostly ignored on the stove, and especially when kept simple, is always delicious. This one bubbled away on the stove for most of yesterday's lazy Sunday afternoon. This was inspired by a bag of yellow split peas that's been living in my dried bean basket for a while now :) I flavored it with dried porcini mushrooms and chipotle, nice and spicy without  burning.

I topped each portion of soup with a little crumbed tempeh bacon. The hubby and I each really enjoyed this and gobbled up the leftovers at lunchtime today.

Yellow Split Pea Soup

ingredients:
-1 bag dried yellow split peas
-2 cubes veggie bouillion 
-1 cup dried porcini mushrooms
-1 chipotle pepper in adobo
-1 clove garlic-smashed
-6 cups water
-2 cups frozen broccoli stems (this was mostly to use them up, potato would do the same job)
-2 tsp cider vinegar
-salt, pepper, curry powder to taste
-crumbled tempeh bacon for garnish

-In a heavy pot, add peas, buillion, mushrooms, chipotle, garlic, water and broccoli stems. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and let simmer until the peas start to break up, this took me atleast 90 minutes.
-Use an immersion blender and blend soup until creamy. I added a little more water, cause mine was a little thick at this point.
-Once happy with consistency, add the cider vinegar and season with salt, pepper and some curry powder.  
-Garnish each bowl with some tempeh bacon crumbles.


*it's really hard to get a good picture of food during the winter!!!!

Vegan MOFO day 19- Borscht

The hubby requested soup today. He actually requested a butternut squash soup, but I decided to make borscht because I had some beets and some cabbage that needed to be used up. Borscht has always been one of my favorite foods, I love the deep flavor of the beets and how tangy the soup gets. This soup brings out the Ukranian in me. Soup is pretty foolproof, you just let it all hang out on the stove for a while, then its yummy!

Here's what I did for the soup...

ingredients:
1 large red onion- sliced
1 tsp peanut oil
5 beets- peeled and cut into matchsticks
8 small carrots- peeled and cut into matchsticks
1/4 head cabbage- sliced and cut up into similar sized pieces as other veggies
1 cube veggie bouillon
dill weed (~1 T), salt and pepper
1/2 lemon

-add the onion to a large pot with a lil oil, cook for several minutes until starts to soften. add in all the other veggies. when the veggies start to cook, cover with water and add in the bouillon cube, dill weed, salt and pepper to taste.
-bring pot to low simmer, allow to cook for 30 minutes until veggies are tender and broth is bright red. taste. add salt and pepper as necessary.
-squeeze in lemon juice of the 1/2 lemon. the soup will now be tangy and wonderful
-i liked this with a dollop of vegenaise on top.

curried acorn squash soup with salad

This is tonight's veggie filled dinner. I realized that I have not been eating a ton of raw veggies lately, so I knew I wanted to have a big salad with dinner tonight. We got a bunch of salad veggies from the Greenmarket this morning. Here's the yummy salad I came up with: butter and red leaf lettuce, grated raw beets, sliced red onion, carrots, and pumpkin seeds, tossed with a lil balsalmic vinagrette. I really enjoyed the raw beets in the salad, their juiciness really made the dressing coat all the veggies.

I made a hearty soup for dinner. This was the kind of soup that warmed my soul, rich and flavorful, full of veggies too, so it was super healthy!

here's how I made the soup...

ingredients:
2 Tb olive oil
1/2 red onion- diced
1 large clove garlic- chopped
1/2 inch ginger- grated
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 small potatoes- cut into large chunks
1 acorn squash- peeled, seeded, then cut into large chunks
5 small carrots- peeled, then cut into large chunks
3 c. broth (i used 1/2 c. chickpea cooking broth, 1/2 c. kidney bean cooking broth, 2 c. water, 1 veggie buillion cube)
3 T curry powder
1 can coconut milk
salt, pepper and mango chutney to taste

-I heated the oil, in my big heavy soup pot, over med heat. I added the onion, garlic, ginger and mustard seeds, I cooked this together until fragrant (maybe 8 min).
-I then added in all the other veggies and the broth. I turned up the heat until I saw some small bubbles. I simmered this for about 25 min until the veggies started to get soft.
-I then added in the curry powder, and coconut milk. I used an immersion blender right in the pot, until the soup was completely smooth. I seasoned my soup with salt, pepper and 1 spoonful of mango chutney.
-I let the soup cook for about another 2o min.

We ate the soup with a lil dollop of EB on top and a slice of yummy bread. soup soup soup <3

corn chowder

Delicious corn chowder for dinner tonight :) We ate this with some Rustic-Italian bread we bought at the Greenmarket this morning. The chowder was full of farm fresh veggies: leeks and rosemary (from my parent's garden), garlic, potato, red pepper, corn, and carrots from the Greenmarket.

ingredients:
2 leeks- cleaned and thinly sliced
1 Tb oil
1 red pepper- diced
2 carrots- diced
4 small red potatoes- diced
3 cups water
1 veggie bouillion cube
1 cup chickpea cooking broth
2 Tb fresh chopped rosemary
3 ears corn- cut off cob
1 cup frozen corn
4 bulbs roasted garlic
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

-cook leeks in oil, over med heat until slightly soft, add pepper, potato, carrot
-add water, broth and bouillion cube, cook over med heat (low bubble) for 30 min
-add rosemary, and fresh corn, season with salt and pepper
-in blender, combine corn, almond milk, roasted garlic and nutritional yeast until smooth
-add corn mixture to soup, and stir until combined
-heat through for 5 more minutes

-serve with chewy bread :)

cream of broccoli soup and garlic bread

i made a cream of broccoli soup-- cooked up a chopped onion in a little peanut oil, then added in 2 chopped potatoes. i added in three small heads of broccoli, cut up into little pieces. instead of veggie broth, i used some garbanzo bean cooking liquid that had been hanging out in the freezer. i used enough liquid to just cover the veggies. for spices, i used salt, pepper, onion powder and parsley. this all simmered for about 25 minutes.
i made a small portion of white sauce in another pot, a little earth balance, some white whole wheat flour and soy milk... when this was thick, i added to first pot, and blended the whole thing with the immersion blender.

for the garlic bread, danny made a garlic butter with earth balance and 2 cloves of pressed garlic. we used yummy perreca's bread, buttered it up!, and placed it under the broiler for 3-4 minutes.

yum yum yum :)